Apprenticeship supply in the Member States of the European Union. Executive Summary

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1 Apprenticeship supply in the Member States of the European Union Executive Summary

2 Apprenticeship supply in the Member States of the European Union Executive Summary European Commission Directorate-General for Employment, Social Affairs and Inclusion Unit C3 Manuscript completed in January 2012

3 The report "" was financed by and prepared for the use of the European Commission, Directorate- General for Employment, Social Affairs and Inclusion. It does not necessarily represent the Commission s official position. The full report is available on line at IKEI Research & Consultancy is a socio-economic research and strategy consultancy organisation with more than 30 years of experience providing services to public and private clients, both at national and international level. In particular, IKEI cooperates regularly with the European Commission and its Agencies. Employment and training is one IKEI s more prominent activity fields (for details, please see Contract VC/2010/0410 Europe Direct is a service to help you find answers to your questions about the European Union Freephone number (*): (*) Certain mobile telephone operators do not allow access to numbers or these calls may be billed. More information on the European Union is available on the Internet (http://europa.eu). European Union, 2012 Reproduction is authorised provided the source is acknowledged.

5 Executive Summary Objectives of the study! The present study is intended to provide an overview of the supply of apprenticeship-type schemes in the EU Member States. For this purpose, the study discusses the effectiveness of these schemes in raising employability and facilitating labour market transitions of apprentices in the EU. Also, the study provides a number of recommendations for improving the functioning and performance of this type of VET schemes. Concept of apprenticeship used in the context of this study! Apprenticeship-type schemes are understood in the context of this study as those forms of Initial Vocational Education and Training (IVET) that formally combine and alternate company based training (periods of practical work experience at a workplace) with school based education (periods of theoretical/practical education followed in a school or training centre), and whose successful completion leads to nationally recognised initial VET certification degrees. This definition makes no explicit reference to the existence of a contractual direct relationship between the employer and the apprentice. Overview of apprenticeship-type schemes in the EU! Apprenticeship-type schemes are well spread all over the European Member States. 24 EU Member States have VET schemes which can be labelled as mainly company based, in the sense that more than half of the training activities take place in a company. However, in a wide majority of these countries, companybased apprenticeships coexist with other mainly school-based training schemes, where tuition takes place at school most of the time, but there are significant components imparted at companies in a real work setting.! In the whole EU-27, approximately 3.7 million pupils follow apprenticeship studies in a strict sense (2009 data). However, another 5.7 million students attend other apprenticeship-type schemes, mainly school-based VET training with some compulsory work-based training in companies. All in all, European enterprises supplied company training positions for a total of about 9.4 million students in total. Apprenticeship-type students represent approximately an 85% of total secondary VET students and 40.5% of total secondary students in the EU-27. These figures descend to a 33% and a 16% respectively if only strict apprenticeships are considered. The countries with the highest numbers of VET students following apprenticeship-type schemes are the largest countries, e.g. Germany, Italy or France.! This study has also elaborated an in-depth analysis of nine specific case studies of concrete relevant apprenticeship-type schemes in an array of selected EU Member States (i.e. Denmark, Estonia, France, Germany, Poland, Slovakia, Spain, The Netherlands and the United Kingdom).! This in-depth analysis shows the existence of important differences amongst schemes and countries in terms of the main actors involved in the design of these April

6 schemes, the role that enterprises play in the provision of vocational skills and professional qualifications, the uneven distribution of work-based training and school training, the existing requisites for enterprises and students to participate in the schemes, the different criteria used to select students who access to apprenticeship places, the presence of work contracts versus agreements between enterprises and students or, finally, the different available financing and quality assurance mechanisms. Lessons learnt from apprenticeship-type schemes! Both at European and national level, public authorities and social partners are aware of the importance of strengthening the workplace learning/apprenticeship dimension within VET studies as a key option for promoting this type of studies.! Apprenticeship-type schemes facilitate rapid school-work transitions for students in comparison to exclusively school-based VET schemes: the combination of theoretical and practical skills acquired in enterprises is regarded as useful both for enterprises and for VET students, considering that training contents are closer to enterprises needs, students get in direct contact with companies and many of them remain after the apprenticeship period. Also, apprenticeship-type schemes provide a very strong signal for detecting skills shortages identified by enterprises.! However, apprenticeship-type schemes are subject to a number of criticisms and challenges. First, advantages of rapid school-work transitions seem to be transitory in time, so apprenticeships long run employment prospects are less clear. Second, it is not clear that skills acquired in workplace training within concrete enterprises are equally transferable to other enterprises (either in the same or in other sector). Thirdly, not all suitable employers participate in apprenticeship-type schemes, although all of them (directly or indirectly) benefit ( free rider issue). Fourthly, the access to apprenticeship-type studies is subject to significant biases in terms of gender, ethnic origin or ability considerations. Finally, there is a risk of apprentices being used as a source of cheap labour by some companies.! As a consequence of the global economic crisis initiated in 2008, the number of students interested in pursuing VET has experienced a remarkable increase whereas the amount of apprenticeships and in-company training placements offered by enterprises has experienced an opposite downward trend in many Member States, since employers are hard pressed by the uncertain business climate.! The current international geographical mobility of apprenticeship-type students is still low, despite of the interest of having a practical training placement in a foreign company. Existing barriers (in terms of costs, information, recognition of studies, language difficulties, etc.) still seem to outweigh the clear advantages that international mobility has for students, enterprises and VET centres.! This report has shown that Member States are very aware of these challenges, so they are very active in the setting up of policy measures and initiatives (often in close collaboration with social partners) to counteract these difficulties and make their national apprenticeship-type VET schemes more responsive to the requirements identified at national level; additional incentives for companies, administrative simplification, information systems matching supply and demand, increased modularisation and flexibility, etc. Amongst these changes, Member States are paying special attention to the establishment of initiatives to facilitate progression of VET/apprenticeship-type students into tertiary level education. April

7 ! These policy actions at national level are being supported by public authorities at EU level. The recent Youth Opportunities Initiative, officially launched 20th December 2011 is a good example of this, where special attention is paid to support apprenticeship-type schemes and the increase in the number of apprenticeship places in Europe. Recommendations This report also contains a number of recommendations for further policy action in the context of apprenticeship-type VET studies. The most important suggestions can be summarised as follows:! Improve the general image of VET, especially in some EU Member States where this image is poorer.! Increase the importance and use of the workplace training dimension in VET.! Ensure a correct balance in the provision of both occupational skills and generals skills and competences to students.! Adapt apprenticeship-type VET contents and systems to enterprises real needs.! Ensure homogeneous quality standards of apprenticeship-type VET studies, specially the work-based training dimension.! Promote horizontal and vertical links between Apprenticeship-type VET studies and other adjacent types of education. Ensure lifelong leaning possibilities of apprenticeship-type VET students.! Assure a sufficient provision of apprenticeship-type places, especially in the current context of economic crisis.! Facilitate access of students to apprenticeship-type VET studies.! Reinforce continuous training activities of VET school teachers and company trainers.! Foster internationalisation of apprenticeship-type VET studies.! Take into account social-related considerations in apprenticeship-vet studies, including the access of all types of students and the cheap labour and early drop-out issues.! Reinforce early career guidance and counselling activities.! Foster cooperation of different stakeholders in the design/management of apprenticeship-type schemes! Facilitate exchange of information and good practices amongst stakeholders of all EU Member States. April

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